Egg carton



R. .SANDELL April 1, 1941.

EGG CARTON Filed Nov. 8, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 R. SANDELL EGG CARTON Filed Nov. 8, '1957 April 1, 1941.

Patented Apr. 1, 1941 EGG CARTGN Rudolf Sandell, Stockholm, Sweden Application November 8, 1937, Serial No. 173,444

In Sweden June 1, 1937 3 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in egg cartons, and more particularly to collapsible egg cartons of card-board comprising an outer shell including bottom, side walls and top of the carton, and an interior member containing one or more panels adapted as egg holders and aritanged between the top and bottom of the carl on.

In the manufacture of egg cartons of this kind it is customary to make the entire carton, that is said-outer shell together with said interior member, from one and the same continuous sheet of card-board which in the longitudinal direction of the carton is provided with parallel scoring lines along which the sheet is folded to form the carton. Those sections of the card-board sheet which are intended to form the egg-holding panels are provided with one or more rows of seats for the eggs, such seats being formed by cut out flaps which are bent down when an egg is inserted into a seat. Said aps are then intended to protect and hold the egg in the seat.

Now it is a well known fact that the buckling resistance of card-board is much greater in the longitudinal direction than in the transverse direction of the fibres, the buckling resistance in the transverse direction being usually only 40-50% of the buckling resistance in the longitudinal direction of the fibres. This dilerence may also be expressed by the general rule that a piece of card-board offers much greater resistance against forces that tend to bend it about a line running transversely to the fibres than about a line running parallel with the bres. To obtain sufficient stiffness in the outside walls of the carton, it is obviously necessary to arrange the material with the fibre direction running in the transverse direction of the carton. When making the entire carton of the above-mentioned design from one continuous sheet of card-board, also all the interior parts of the carton, such as egg-holding panels, will have their fibre direction running in the transverse direction of the carton.

However, it is equally necessary that the bent f direction of the panel or carton, as the fibres then Y will be bent about lines running transversely to the fibres. Further it is to be noted that it is necessary to use a tough material for the eggholding panels, as otherwise the cut out flaps or the like would be easily torn or mutilated when inserted or removing the eggs, or generally during the routine handling of the cartons on their way from the egg producer to the egg consumer with repeatedly occurring inspecting, candling and repacking operations etc.

On the other hand, the outer shell requires in the rst place a stiff material, whereas toughness is a secondary consideration. Thus it will be seen that the requirements upon the material in the outer shell and the material in the interior member stand in opposition to each other. As stifness and toughness cannot be combined in the same piece of card-board except at a high price, and the card-board in addition must have great stiffness also in the longitudinal direction of the egg-holding panels to satisfy the requirements of stiffness of resistance of the bent down liaps against deection, it is obvious that if the entire carton is made from one continuous sheet of cardboard having the fibre direction running in the transverse direction of the carton, a cardboard of a very high quality and a corresponding very high price must be used.

In addition to the necessity of using a Very expensive card-board material when making the lentire carton from one continuous sheet, such cartons require much manual work in the manufacture which limits the output of the machinery used and makes the cost of manufacture high. If an entirely automatic machine really could be designed to eliminate all manual work, such a machine would be extremely complicated and expensive and would nevertheless have a rather limited capacity.

The present invention has for its object an egg carton of a novel and simple design, in which the above mentioned conditions regarding strength, stiffness and toughness of the material in the different parts of the carton may be satised with the use of very cheap card-board mate- I rial, and which may be manufactured at a very nal direction of the carton, the egg-holding panel or panels of the interior member having their libre direction running in the longitudinal direction of the carton. Y

By thus making the outer shell and the interior member from diierent pieces of material, it will be possible to use materials of different quality in the outer shell and the interior member respectively so that the special requirements as to toughness of the egg-holding panels may be fullled independently of the quality of the card-board of the outer shell. possible to turn the fibre direction of each part in such a manner that the requirements as to stiffness are satised in both parts without the use of any expensive quality of card-board. u

A number of embodiments are illustrated by Way of example on the accompanying drawings.`

Figs. 1-4 show cross-sections through four different embodiments of the egg carton.

Fig. 5 shows an end view of the carton accordv ing to Fig. 3.

Fig. 6 shows a longitudinal horizontal section along the line VI-VI in Fig. 1.

Fig. 7 shows a longitudinal horizontal section .I

along the line VII-VII in Fig. 3.

In Figs. 1-4 the collapsible outer shell of the carton consists of the two longitudinal side walls I and 2, the bottom 3 and the top 4, being made preferably from onesheet of cardboard provided .J

with longitudinal scoring lines 5, E and 1, along which the outer shell is foldable. The top 4 may be termin-ated by a foldable ap 8, which may be turned downwards in the closed carton as indicated in Figs. 2, 3 and 4. The outer shell has preferably its fibre direction running substantially in the transverse direction of the bottom, side walls and top of the carton so that the carton will obtain suicient buckling resistance y in the transverse direction.

. longitudinal direction of the carton. Said flaps may be cut out in many various ways and are not indicated in Fig. 1 for the sake of clearness. Thepanel 9 forming the interior member is hingedly connected to the outer shell along the longitudinal lines I9 and II so that the entire carton may be collapsed to a plane state in the transverse direction of the carton. For this purpose the panel 9 is provided with longitudinal extensions I2 and I3 which are foldable along the lines I9 and I'I respectively and secured to the side walls I and 2., as by gluing or the like. According to the invention the fibre direction of the panel 9-is running in the longitudinal direction of the; carton for the reasons set forth above.

In the carton according to Fig. 2 a vertical partition wall I4 is provided which divides the carton into two compartments I5 and I6, each for one row of eggs. The partition wall I4 is at the same Itime adapted as a supporting Wall for the bottom and topl of the carton. For this purpose the partition wall extends between the bottom and top of the carton and is hingedly secured to lthe bottomalong the longitudinal line I1 which is a folding line for the extension I8 It Will also be.

of the partition wall, said extension being glued to the bottom 3.

In each compartment I5, I6 there is arranged an egg-holding panel I9, 2i] provided with one row of seats for the eggs and secured in similar manner as the panel 9 in Fig. l. The panel I9 is hingedly secured to lthe side wall I and the partition wall I4 along the longitudinal lines 2| and 22 respectively by -means `of the foldable extensions 23 and 24 respectively. The panel 29 is in the same way hingedly secured to the side wall 2 4and partition wall I4 along the longitudinal lines 25 and 26 respectively by means of the foldable extensions 21 and 28 respectively.

Y The interior member of the carton will thus in this embodiment consist of the two panels I9, 20 and the vertical partition wall I4, and the interior member considered as a unit is hingedly secured to the outer shell along the longitudinal lines I'I, ZI' and 25 so that the interior member together with the outer shell Will be ycollapsible to a plane state in the transverse direction of the carton. -member is made up of three pieces I4, I9 andZ. However, the two panels may be made from one strip of card-board which is folded above the top edge of the partition wall so as toenclose the upper part of the partition wall being glued to both sides of the latter. The fibre direction of the egg-holding panels is running in the lon gitudinal direction of the carton for the reasons set forth above. As mentioned above, it will be possible to select different qualities of card-board for the outer shell, the panels and the partition wall respectively so as to suit the special requirements of each of said parts with regard to strength, stiffness and toughness, and for these reasons it will be possible to entirely avoid the use of card-board which is superqualied in any of said respects, such as was necessarily the case when making the entire carton from one icontinuous sheet of card-board.

It is obvious that the embodiments of Fig. 2 may be utilised in the same way for egg-car-` tons having more than two compartments for the eggs by adding one or more partition walls and providing an egg-holding panel in the sameway in each additional compartment.

Fig. 3 shows an egg-carton with two compartments for the eggs being separated by a supporting partition wall 29 extending between the top and bottom of the carton In this embodiment two egg-holding panels are arranged in each compartment, an upper panel 30, 3l and a lower panel 32, 33. Each panel is hinged'-l ly secured to one of the side walls and the par- `tition wall 29 in the same manner as the partition wall I4 in Fig. 2 along longitudinal lines by means of foldable extensions glued to the side walls and the partition wall a-s illustrated. Said hinging lines of the panels 30, 3I, 32 and 33 are designated by 34 and 35, 36 and 31,538 and 39, 40 and 4I respectively. In this embodiment the supporting partitionwall 29 is not necessarily secured t0 the bottom 3 of vthe carton.

The interior member of the carton is in4 thisv embodiment formed by five different strips ofA material 29, 39, 3|, 32 and 33, and the interior member considered as a unit is hingedly connected to the outer shell along the four longi. tudinal lines 34, 33, 38 and 40 so as to make the interior member together with the outer shell collapsible to a plane state in the transversedirection of the carton.

In the same manner as in the embodiment In this embodiment the interiorl according to Fig. 2, the outer shell, the eggholding panels, and the partition wall may be made out of diierent qualities of card-board to suit the requirements of said parts regarding strength, stiffness and toughness. The fibre direction of the egg-holding panels and preferably also that of the supporting partition wall should for the reasons stated above run in the longitudinal direction of the carton, whereas the fibre direction of the outer shell may run in the transverse direction of the carton as stated above.

Fig. 4 also shows an egg carton with two compartments separated by a supporting partition wall and with two egg-holding panels in each compartment.

In this embodiment the interior member comprising the partition wall and the egg-holding panels is made from one continuous sheet of card-board having its fibre direction running in the longitudinal direction of the carton. Said sheet forming the interior member is composed of a plurality cf sections separated by parallel scoring lines along which the sheet is folded to form the interior member. Said sections are from one end of the sheet to the other designated by the numerals 42-52 respectively as illustrated. The sections 43, 45, 49, 5l form the egg-holding panels. The sections 44 and 5i) are glued to the side walls l and 2 respectively and reinforce the latter. The sections 42, 46, 48, 52 are glued to the section 41 and form together with the latter a reinforced partition wall between the top and bottom of the carton. The panels 43, 45, 49 and 5l are hingedly connected to the partition wall along the longitudinal lines 53, 54, 55 and 56 respectively, and to the side walls l and 2 respectively along the longitudinal lines 57, 58, 59 and 69 respectively. The partition wall is not connected to the bottom 3.

The whole interior member is thus hingedly connected to the outer shell along the longitudinal lines 51, 58, 59 and 60 so that the interior member together with the outer shell will of the flaps thus formed are indicated by dotted lines.

In the panel the transverse aps 6l are bent downwards about the bending lines 62 when an egg is inserted. As the flaps 6I extend across the total width oi the compartment, they will then brace up the side walls. The cut out tongue 53 as being integral with the flaps 6| are moved upwards into the upper part 'of the compartment above the panels 36, 3l and form a support of the eggs in that part of the carton. The aps 64 are bent downwards along the oblique bending lines 65 when an egg is inserted and form supports of the eggs both sideways and longitudinally, When the flaps 6I and 64 are bent down they leave the side parts 61 of the panel in the horizontal position. In the ends of the panels the cuts are arranged somewhat diiierently, as illustrated, leaving at one end the horizontal part 66 and at the other end the horizontal parts 611, the tongues 68 and 69 being bent upwards, the former by hand, the latter automatically when bending the flap 10 downwards.

However, in certain cases it may be found advisable to reverse the direction of the aps in one or more seats at one end of the carton, so that the end seats at both ends will have the appearance of 64, 64, 68, or of '10,v 69, 611 andl 671. In the former case there will be four flaps 64 in that seat where the reversal starts whereas in the latter case the seat where the reversal starts will consist, in the longitudinal direction of the carton, of one flap 6I on each side, but without corner flaps 64. v

Fig. '7 illustrates by way of example how the seat-forming flaps may be arranged in the panels in the embodiment according to Figs. 3 5. The left half of Fig. '7 shows the seats in the upper panels, and the right half the seats in the lower panels. In Fig. 7 the actual cuts made are shown by full lines, and the bending lines of the flaps thus formed are indicated by d-otted lines.

In the upper panels the transverse aps "H, 12 are bent downwards about the transverse bending lines 13 when an egg is inserted. As the aps 1|, l2 extend across the total width oi the compartment, they will then brace up the partition wall and the outer side wall. When the aps ll, 'l2 are bent down, they leave the side parts 14 in the horizontal position. In the ends of the upper panels the flaps are formed somewhat diiferently. At each enld a flap l5 is fo-rmed of larger extension longitudinally for reasons set forth below. The flaps l5 are bent downwards about the lines 82 leaving the side parts 16 in the horizontal position. The tongues 'i1 being made integral with the aps 15 are turned upwards into the upper part of the compartment when the flaps 15 are bent downwards.

The lower panels 32, 33 are divided by transverse cuts 'I3 into a number of inter-independent resilient cushions 19 for the bottom of the eggs and a. transverse strip 86 at each end of a panel. Each such cushion corresponds to a seat in the upper panel. In the centre of each` cushion 19 a cross-shaped sea-t is malde by crossing cuts forming resilient flaps 8l, which are bent downwards more or less, when an egg is introduced into a seat. The illustrated flaps 8| may be replaced by flaps of any other suitable form, and they may even be omitted as the cushions 19 themselves possess a resilience that may be sufcient for the intended purpose.

The end flaps 15 in the upper panels should have such longitudinal extension that when they are bent downwards about the lines 82, the edge 83 will snap into the corresponding transverse cuts 181 in the lower panel, as illustrated in Fig. 5. In this way the flaps-15 will form effective end walls of the carton.

The flaps of the panels 43, 49, 45, 5I of the embodiment according to Fig. 4 may be of the same design as the flaps illustrated in, Figs. 6 and '7.

The embodiment according to Fig. 1 may be modified by adding a second lower egg-holding panel of the same kind as the lower panels according to Fig. 4. The flaps of the two panels may be of the same design, as shown in Figs. 6 and 7.

Having now particularly described the nature of my invention and the manner of its operation what I claim is:

1. A collapsible egg carton of card-board comprising a collapsible outer prismatic shell including bottom, longitudinal side walls and top of the carton., and an interior member, said outer shell and said interior member being made from separate pieces of material and hingedly secured to each other along lines running in the longitudinal direction of the carton to make the entire carton collapsible in the transverse direction of the carton, said interior member being composed of at least one longitudinal panel arranged between the bottom and top of the carton, seats for the eggs being provided in said panel by means of aps out out in the panel and adapted to be bent down into the space below said panel to form supports for the eggs therein in the longitudinal direction of the carton, at least two of the flaps in each seat being cut oui'l in such a position as to be bent downwards about lines oblique to the side walls of the carton to form corner flaps for the support of the eggs, and in which at least part of the other cut out flaps extend between the side walls of the corresponding egg compartment anld lare adapted to be bent downwards about a line perpendicular to said side walls `to form a brace between them in the transverse direction of the erected carton, said panel having its bre direction running in the longitudinal direction of the carton, and the outer shell having its bre direction running in the transverse direction of the carton.

2. A collapsible egg carton of card-board comprising a collapsible outer prismatic shell including bottom, longitudinal side walls and top of the carton, and an interior member, said outer shell and said interior member being made from separate pieces of material and hingedly secured to each other along lines running in the longitudinal direction of -the carton to make the entire carton collapsible in the transverse direction of the carton, said interior member being composed of at least one longitudinal supporting wall dividing the carton into a corresponding number of compartments for the eggs, and at least one longitudinal panel arranged in each of said compartments between the bottom and top of the carton, seats for the eggs being provided in said panel by means ofaps cut out in the panel and adapted to be bent down into the space below said panel to form supports for the eggs therein in the longitudinal direction of the carton, at least two of the flaps in each seat being cut out in such aposition as to be bent downwards about lines oblique to the side walls of the carton to form corner aps for the support of the eggs, and in which at least part of the other cut out ilaps extend between the side walls of the corresponding egg compartment and are adapted to be bent downwards about a line perpendicular to said side walls to form a brace between them in the transverse direction of the erected carton, said panels having their fibre direction running in the longitudinal direction. of the carton, and the outer shell having its libre direction running in the transverse direction of the carton.

3. A collapsible egg carton lof card-board comprising a collapsible outer prisma-tic shell including bottom, longitudinal side walls and top of the carton, and an interior member, said outer shell and said interior member being made from separate pieces of material and hingedly secured to each other along lines running in the longitudinal direction of the carton to make the entire carton collapsible in the transverse direction of the carton, said interior member being composed of at least one longitudinal panel arranged between the bottom arnd top of vthe carton, seats for the eggs being provided in said panel by means of flaps cut out in the panel and adapted to be bent down into the space below said panel to form supports for the eggs therein in the longitudinal direction of the carton, at least two of the flaps in each seat being cut out in such a position as to be bent downwards about lines oblique to the sidev walls of the carton to form corner naps for the support of the eggs, and in which at least part of the other cut out flaps extend between the side walls of the corresponding egg compartment and are adapted to be bent downwards about a line perpendicular to said side walls to form a brace between them in the transverse direction of the erected carton, said bracing flaps being also provided with an extension adapted to be automatically brought into the space above the egg-holding panel to support the eggs therein when the bracing iiap is bent downwards, said panel having its fibre direction running in the longitudinal direction of the carton, and the outer shell having its fibre `direction running in the transverse direction of the carton.

RUDOLF SANDELL. 

